Introduction to the Compleat Angler

By Andrew Lang

"Introduction to the Compleat Angler" by Andrew Lang. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Dec 5, 2019
• ISBN: 4057664567314

Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish editor, poet, author, literary critic, and historian. He is best known for his work regarding folklore, mythology, and religion, for which he had an extreme interest in. Lang was a skilled and respected historian, writing in great detail and exploring obscure topics. Lang often combined his studies of history and anthropology with literature, creating works rich with diverse culture. He married Leonora Blanche Alleyne in 1875. With her help, Lang published a prolific amount of work, including his popular series, Rainbow Fairy Books.

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Andrew Lang

Introduction to the Compleat Angler

Published by Good Press, 2022

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EAN 4057664567314

Table of Contents

ANDREW LANG’S INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLEAT ANGLER

HIS LIFE

WALTON AS A BIOGRAPHER

THE COMPLEAT ANGLER

FISHING THEN AND NOW

Transcribed from the 1896 J. M. Dent edition by David Price, email [e-mail]

ANDREW LANG’S INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLEAT ANGLER

Table of Contents

To write on Walton is, indeed, to hold a candle to the sun. The editor has been content to give a summary of the chief or rather the only known, events in Walton’s long life, adding a notice of his character as displayed in his Biographies and in The Compleat Angler, with comments on the ancient and modern practice of fishing, illustrated by passages from Walton’s foregoers and contemporaries. Like all editors of Walton, he owes much to his predecessors, Sir John Hawkins, Oldys, Major, and, above all, to the learned Sir Harris Nicolas.

HIS LIFE

Table of Contents

The few events in the long life of Izaak Walton have been carefully investigated by Sir Harris Nicolas. All that can be extricated from documents by the alchemy of research has been selected, and I am unaware of any important acquisitions since Sir Harris Nicolas’s second edition of 1860. Izaak was of an old family of Staffordshire yeomen, probably descendants of George Walton of Yoxhall, who died in 1571. Izaak’s father was Jarvis Walton, who died in February 1595-6; of Izaak’s mother nothing is known. Izaak himself was born at Stafford, on August 9, 1593, and was baptized on September 21. He died on December 15, 1683, having lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., under the Commonwealth, and under Charles II. The anxious and changeful age through which he passed is in contrast with his very pacific character and tranquil pursuits.

Of Walton’s education nothing is known, except on the evidence of his writings. He may have read Latin, but most of the books he cites had English translations. Did he learn his religion from ‘his mother or his nurse’? It will be seen that the free speculation of his age left him untouched: perhaps his piety was awakened, from childhood, under the instruction of a pious mother. Had he been orphaned of both parents (as has been suggested) he might have been less amenable to authority, and a less notable example of the virtues which Anglicanism so vainly opposed to Puritanismism. His literary beginnings are obscure. There exists a copy of a work, The Loves of Amos and Laura, written by S. P., published in 1613, and again in 1619. The edition of 1619 is dedicated to ‘Iz. Wa.’:—

‘Thou being cause it is as now it is’;

the Dedication does not occur in the one imperfect known copy of 1613. Conceivably the words, ‘as now it is’ refer to the edition of 1619, which might have been emended by Walton’s advice. But there are no emendations, hence it is more probable that Walton revised the poem in 1613, when he was a man of twenty, or that he merely advised the author to publish:—

‘For, hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might

These have been buried in oblivion’s night.’

S. P. also remarks:—

‘No ill thing can be clothed in thy verse’;

hence Izaak was already a rhymer, and a harmless